NEW YORK — Back to another three decades or so of baseball irrelevance for the Royals, a once-proud franchise that clearly has lost its way.
The defending world champions? Once a season is over, it’s on to the next one. Reporting to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday with a sub-.500 record for the first time since they were 49-50 entering their game on July 23, 2014, the Royals knew that their reputation as a relentless bunch with a killer instinct was at stake in a showdown in the biggest market in the game.
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“I just feel like we hit a rough stretch,” Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain told Sporting News.